vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) Puppet plugin enables vRealize Automation (vRA) and Puppet to work together to achieve infrastructure configuration, application deployment, and lifecycle management. vRO Puppet plugin is a collection of vRO workflows which work with embedded or external vRealize orchestrator, and it supports Puppet enterprise as well as Puppet open source flavors.

Workflows available with this plugin can be used in a standalone manner as well as multiple workflows can be combined for desired results. In a nutshell, vRO Puppet plugin is a framework of vRO workflows for Puppet that can be customized and extended by user as needed.

Highlights vROPS Puppet plugin:

Install / configure Linux or Windows Puppet agent.

Sign / clean node certificate.

Node classification using Hiera or Manifest files.

Description vRO Puppet plugin:

VRO Puppet plugin uses SSH to communicate with the puppet master. SSH and Windows PowerShell are used to communicate with Linux and Windows nodes. Currently Hiera and manifests are two Puppet node classification mechanisms that are supported with the plugin.

Create and maintain the Hiera and Manifest classification files for node classification.

Trigger an on-demand Puppet agent run on the node by using SSH and PowerShell.

Perform node agent certificate removal from the Puppet Master.

Call the experimental Rake API for node classification.

You must use the Orchestrator configuration interface to install the Puppet plug-in. You can then use the Orchestrator client to run and create workflows and access the Puppet plug-in API. vRealize Orchestrator powers the Puppet plug-in. Orchestrator is a development and process-automation platform that provides a library of extensible workflows to manage the vCenter infrastructure and other technologies. Orchestrator allows integration with management and administration solutions through its open plug-in architecture. The Puppet plug-in is one example of a configuration management solution that you can integrate with Orchestrator.

Puppet plugin prerequisites

To install and use the Puppet plug-in, your system must meet the following product prerequisites.

vRealize Orchestrator

Verify that you have a running instance of the embedded vRealize Orchestrator 6.0 server, the embedded vCenter Orchestrator 5.5 server, or vCenter Orchestrator 5.5.2.1.

You can log in to the Orchestrator configuration interface at http://orchestrator_server:8282.

Verify that you can connect to the Puppet Master using SSH from the Orchestrator server

Verify that the SSH daemon on the Puppet Master allows multiple sessions. The SSH daemon parameter to support multiple sessions on the Puppet Master is in the configuration file, /etc/ssh/sshd_config. The session parameter must be set to MaxSession=10.

Verify that the WinRM HTTP or HTTPS protocol for Windows is enabled. See the Configure WinRM to Use HTTP and Configure WinRM to Use HTTPS topics in the VMware vRealize Orchestrator Plug-Ins Documentation Center. Verify that enough memory is allocated on the node to run Puppet in a remote shell using WinRM or PowerShell. Use the winrm set winrm/config/winrs @{MaxMemoryPerShellMB=”4096″} command to increase the memory allocation.

Erik Scholten

The founder and driving force behind VMGuru. With over 20 years experience in IT, he now works as a Cloud Management Specialist at VMware Benelux. He worked as technical consultant, pre-sales and solutions architect for several systems integrators.
He's a long time VMware VCP Data Center Virtualization, VCP Desktop, VCP Cloud Management & Automation, VCA, VSP and VTSP, vExpert Cloud (2017) and one of the few 10 times vExpert (2009 - 2018).